Darfur Athlete Profile: Maht

Maht

Maht lives in the furthest zone of his camp. Although there is sand everywhere, the refugees who were resettled here, feel the sand encroaching on them each and every day; more so than in other zones. Houses, built of water and sand to create more protection than a tent, often melt away in rain and fly away as the wind shifts the desert sand. Some who settled in this part of the refugee camp, have already been moved to another part of the camp because the desert has swallowed their homes.

But Maht and his friends still find time to be kids. They are resourceful and have created their own cars to race across hot, arid desert. Using tin cans leftover from cooking oil, soda cans and anything else they can find to reuse, him and his friends have made race cars pulled by strings.

When we met the three friends, they were finished with school for the day and were racing past us, pulling the three cars behind them. Holding tight to the string, and balancing the car so as not to tip it take practice. One then has to be the quickest runner to beat the pack!

Katie-Jay keeps i-ACT running on several levels. Much of her work entails coordinating partnerships with other grassroots organizations and implementing the campaigns developed by Gabriel and seeing through the details. She graduated from Portland State University with a BA in Sociology and a focus on Community Development. She has previously worked as a community organizer in Thailand, Guatemala, and with grassroots organizations across the United States.